Welcome to 2021 in Neptune City! We want to again thank everyone who believed in and voted for us, we couldn’t have done it without your support and confidence.
That being said, it wouldn’t be a Democratic flip without drama, and of course, there was some.
In the present political climate, we feel it is important to get the facts out there; much like the Big Lie there are some things being said which simply aren’t true and it’s important to set the record straight before these misleading stories spiral.
FACT: The Democratic candidates won, thus flipping the majority “blue.” This was the result of the vote as well as confirmed once again by the recount the Republicans demanded.
FACT: According to the borough form of government, the majority has the right to approve or reject the Mayor’s appointments. Think of it like when Trump won – he put in all his own people (several times over!), just as President Biden is doing now. It’s a normal process. When the Republicans in Neptune City won the majority, they did exactly that and put their own picks in place. They did this with no input, no reaching out to, no offers to interview applicants, nothing, to the Democrats on Council. And there were no tears or public outcry by the Democrats, because, well – we’re adults.
FACT: The former Business Administrator resigned for a new job with another municipality mere days prior to January 1, 2021, creating an urgent need to fill the position. As the Republican-requested recount was not completed until December 21st, we were not sure of our victory and did not move forward with making concrete plans until the win was officially certified.
Please think about it – we didn’t know for sure that we won until a few days before Christmas and the former BA had already been interviewing for other jobs.
On “Re-org Day” (January 1st), the governing body rejected the Mayor’s picks for professional services at its annual reorganization meeting, as is their right by law. In such an event, and in accordance with New Jersey law, when the Council rejects the Mayor’s appointments, it has the authority to appoint professional services for the Borough at the 30-day mark.
An ad placed by the Mayor during the first week of January 2021 produced no qualified candidates and the need to fill the position quickly became even more pressing.
On Monday 2/1/21, the Neptune City Borough Council held a special meeting to award professional services contracts, and appoint a Business Administrator for the current year.
During the meeting, Councilwoman Danielle Pappas raised a number of concerns related to process and transparency that we would like to address here.
The first charge leveled was that the candidate being chosen for the Business Administrator position was selected in secret, and that Democrats had not kept Ms. Pappas or any other Republican council members aware of his existence or qualifications prior to the special meeting on 2/1/21. This is false.
FACT: All Council Members knew about the candidate in an email dated 1/7/21 and most likely earlier.
FACT: Councilwoman Dani Pappas received email on 1/7 and did not call or inquire via email to ANYONE before the Monday, February 1st meeting.
FACT: The Mayor was provided the CV and urged to meet with the candidate the entire month of January. While he did suffer from COVID, there was not even a phone interview, email or discussion.
FACT: The candidate had individual discussions with Council members who reached out.
Another charge Councilwoman Dani Pappas leveled was whether or not we had received an employment application. Not a single Democrat on Council, since Councilwoman Pamela Renee first won in 2014 and all going forward has EVER received an employment application. One reason for this may be because they are an HR issue, possibly complete with Social Security numbers – there is no reason a Councilperson would get them. Have the Republican members of Council received employment applications with sensitive information on them?
FACT: Unlike Councilwoman Pappas, we will not stoop to misleading the public in the name of theatrics and creating fake outrage during Council meetings. This is an old tried and true tactic – playing on other’s decency and stirring up an ever-dwindling group of people who mistrust anything and everything.
Transparency goes both ways – when someone claims others aren’t transparent while leaving out the tiny tidbit that they were aware for a month and did nothing – that is unfortunately purely political. It’s amusing, yet tragic that one side rails against the “politicization,” yet uses the pulpit to continually accuse and mislead purely for political reasons. And people can’t win – if you don’t argue, you’re weak and if you do and expose the lies, you are “elite” or “don’t like” or “have an agenda.” It’s all theatrics modeled after national politics and has no place here in Neptune City.
Now that that’s settled, we’d like to get to work for you, Neptune City.
Please feel free to send us any suggestions, concerns or ideas – especially ideas! – that you may have to make your life here even better.
Thank you again,
Councilpeople David Calhoun, John Pietrunti, Pamela Renee and Glen Kocsis